Cody Bellinger and Zach McKinstry will each begin Triple-A rehab stints today, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told MLB.com’s Juan Toribio and other reporters. Bellinger played in just four games this season before suffering what was originally thought to be a left calf contusion, but later diagnosed as a hairline fracture in his left leg. Considering the long layoff, Bellinger’s rehab stint figures to be more than just a game or two, but the team didn’t put any sort of timeline on a potential return.
McKinstry went on the 10-day injured list on April 23 due to a right oblique strain, which interrupted a very impressive start to the season for the rookie utilityman. McKinstry had a .296/.328/.556 slash line and three home runs over his first 58 plate appearances, and saw time at four different positions (second base, third base, both corner outfield spots). Getting both Bellinger and McKinstry back soon will be an enormous help to a Dodgers team that has already had even its considerable depth tested by a long list of injuries.
More on some other injury situations around baseball…
- The Cardinals announced that Carlos Martinez has been activated from the 10-day injured list, and the righty will start tonight’s game against the Cubs. Martinez was (retroactively) placed on the IL with a right ankle injury on May 9, so he’ll end up missing only slightly more than the minimum 10 days. Martinez has managed a 4.35 ERA over 41 1/3 innings this season despite one of the game’s lowest strikeout rates (12.6%) and a very unflattering set of Statcast numbers.
- Vince Velasquez was scratched shortly before his scheduled start last night against the Marlins, as Velasquez felt numbness in his index finger. “It was very hard for me to even grip the ball,” Velasquez told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury and other reporters, though he is “not worried at all” and expects to make his next start. Phillies manager Joe Girardi was rather less certain, calling the issue “something that we’re concerned about.” Velasquez previously underwent surgery in 2017 to correct a numbness problem in his right middle finger, and that same finger had a brief bout of numbness this past weekend, he said. Since moving back into the Phils’ rotation on April 23, Velasquez had posted a 2.84 ERA and 26.4% strikeout rate over 25 1/3 innings, helping add some stability to the back end of the Philadelphia staff.
- Rays right-hander Michael Wacha is expected to return soon from the 10-day injured list, likely during the club’s four-game series with the Blue Jays that begins tonight. Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash told MLB.com’s Adam Berry and other reporters that Wacha looked good during a simulated game on Wednesday. Right hamstring tightness sent Wacha to the IL on May 4, after he’d posted a 4.76 ERA in his first 28 1/3 innings of the season. Despite a 4.06 SIERA, advanced metrics aren’t friendly overall to Wacha, who is allowing a ton of hard contact and has a .400 xwOBA that soars above his .317 wOBA.
Putting Bellinger back in the middle of that lineup will be a big boost for the Dodgers.
AAA is doing Tuesday-Sunday series with Monday as a travel day. He’ll play this weekend then get Monday to see how he’s feeling/doing. Wonder if he’s back in time for the second SF series.
After that disastrous stretch the Dodgers just went through, and still only being 2-3 games back for best record in the league. it’s going to get tough for the rest of the league now that they are starting to get healthy
Exactly. Dodgers fans have a lot to look forward to, with guys like Seager, Pollock and Gonsolin returning eventually, as well. Hopefully Turner breaks out of his slump soon, too. He has been kind of brutal at the plate lately, especially with RISP, but I don’t expect that to last too long. Getting both Bellinger and McKinstry back should be a huge first step in the right direction.
Hopefully Cody comes back from rehab raking just like Matt Beaty did after his rehab stint
Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha – two Cardinals pitchers that showed a lot of promise early and fell off a cliff before age 30.
Wacha yes but C-Mart has been good for a while except 2020 which he had COVID. He had a bad start but is balling rn
Yeah, the whole staff had a bad start but has been pretty good since mid-April, Carlos included.
Mets will beat dodgers if and it’s a big if the whole staff is healthy. No one can match 1 to 5 the mets have in degrom stroman carrasco syndergaard and walker with Lugo Diaz may Castro and loup at the back
Except the dodgers because their 1-7 is more impressive than your 1-5
Work on getting to 500 before swinging up
This is not a good take
When McKinstry left for IL Dodgers had a commanding lead of West Division.
Since he has been out hard times have come….not saying McKinstry is babe ruth but it sure seemed like Dodgers had difficulty producing runs. McKinstry seems to have a knack to drive in runners in the low point of batting order
You’re right. He has a contact oriented approach with surprising power. Dodgers couldn’t replace that with the AAA outfield depth they have
But the real Crux was the bullpen injuries paired with the offense. Seemed like every game in that 3 week stretch they had a lead or tied, and then lost it late. That was getting really old, really fast
The rest of the NL & MLB had their chance to bury the Dodgers, but they didn’t take advantage while they’ve had 10+ main contributors out injured. They also had a major collapse going 5-15 recently. If they had gone 8-12 during that same stretch they would be the best team in the majors. Let that sink in! Bellinger and his buddies will be back soon.
Overrated!!
Glad to hear Michael Wacha is still pitching.